Driver circuits are used in numerous applications. As an example, driver circuits such as any of a variety of classes of amplifiers, can be implemented in the transmission of data to a different medium, such as for wireless transmission or for writing data to a magnetic medium. Due to the increasing demand for faster data transfer, some driver circuits may be required to provide a very rapid data-rate. As an example, in high-end/enterprise-class disk-drives, such as computer servers, a data-rate provided by a driver circuit can be greater than 2 gigabits per second (Gbs) to support a disk-drive of greater than 12,000 RPM. However, other driver circuits may have data-rate requirements of a lesser magnitude. As an example, preamplifier drivers that are used in desktop or laptop hard-drives can have a data-rate that is between 1 and 2 Gbs.
Multiple driver circuits that operate together to provide signals to an output medium, such as a magnetic disk-drive, can typically be implemented together in an integrated circuit. Such integrated circuits can be standardized, such that a given integrated circuit that includes one or more write driver circuits can be implemented in any magnetic disk write system. However, power requirements may change depending on the data-rate that is required for the driver circuit(s). As an example, for the high-end/enterprise-class disk-drives, such as computer servers, a relatively high power consumption (e.g., approximately 2-3 watts) can be required to support the data-rate of the driver. As another example, hard-drives that are implemented in desktop or laptop computers may consume less power (e.g., approximately 1-2 watts) to support the data-rate of the driver.